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Originally published in 1853, Clotel is the first novel by an
African American. William Wells Brown, a contemporary of Frederick
Douglass, was well known for his abolitionist activities. In
Clotel, the author focuses on the experiences of a slave woman:
Brown treats the themes of gender, race, and slavery in distinctive
ways, highlighting the mutability of identity as well as the
absurdities and cruelties of slavery. The plot includes several
mulatto characters, such as Clotel, who live on the margins of the
black and white worlds, as well as a woman who dresses as a man to
escape bondage; a white woman who is enslaved; and a famous white
man who is mistaken for a mulatto. In her Introduction, scholar
Joan E. Cashin highlights the most interesting features of this
novel and its bold approach to gender and race relations. This
volume, the latest in the American History Through Literature
series, is suitable for a variety of undergraduate courses in
American history, cultural history, women's studies, and slavery.
Originally published in 1853, Clotel is the first novel by an
African American. William Wells Brown, a contemporary of Frederick
Douglass, was well known for his abolitionist activities. In
Clotel, the author focuses on the experiences of a slave woman:
Brown treats the themes of gender, race, and slavery in distinctive
ways, highlighting the mutability of identity as well as the
absurdities and cruelties of slavery. The plot includes several
mulatto characters, such as Clotel, who live on the margins of the
black and white worlds, as well as a woman who dresses as a man to
escape bondage; a white woman who is enslaved; and a famous white
man who is mistaken for a mulatto. In her Introduction, scholar
Joan E. Cashin highlights the most interesting features of this
novel and its bold approach to gender and race relations. This
volume, the latest in the American History Through Literature
series, is suitable for a variety of undergraduate courses in
American history, cultural history, women's studies, and slavery.
William Wells Brown (1814? 84) was uncertain of his own birthday
because he was born a slave, near Lexington, Kentucky. He managed
to escape to Ohio, a free state, in 1834. Obtaining work on
steamboats, he assisted many other slaves to escape across Lake
Erie to Canada. In 1849, having achieved prominence in the American
anti-slavery movement, he left for Europe, both to lecture against
slavery and also to gain an education for his daughters. He stayed
in Europe until 1854, since the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had made
it possible that he could be taken back into slavery if he
returned. Meanwhile, he had begun to write both fiction and
non-fiction, and this account of his travels in Europe, prefaced by
a short biography, was published in 1852. Brown was able to return
to the United States in 1854, when British friends paid for his
freedom."
A showcase of the extraordinary career America's first Black
novelist and pivotal figure in African American literature: "It is
difficult to imagine any one of his contemporaries who contributed
as much or as richly to so many genres" (Henry Louis Gates Jr.)
Born a slave and kept functionally illiterate until he escaped at
age nineteen, William Wells Brown (1814-1884) refashioned himself
first as an agent of the Underground Railroad, then as an
antislavery activist and self-taught orator, and finally as the
author of a series of landmark works that made him, like Frederick
Douglass, a foundational figure of African American literature. His
controversial novel Clotel; or, the President's Daughter (1853), a
fictionalized account of the lives and struggles of Thomas
Jefferson's black daughters and granddaughters, is the first novel
written by an African American. This Library of America volume
brings it together with Brown's other groundbreaking works:
Narrative of William W. Brown: A Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself
(1847), his first published book and an immediate bestseller, which
describes his childhood, life in slavery, and eventual escape;
later memoirs charting his life during the Civil War and
Reconstruction; the first play (The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom,
1858), travelogue (The American Fugitive in Europe, 1855), and
history (The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His
Achievements, 1862) written by an African American; and eighteen
speeches and public letters from the 1840s, 50s, and 60s, many
collected here for the first time. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an
independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to
preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping
permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing.
The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to
date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length,
feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are
printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
Originally published in 1847, William W. Brown offers a
first-person narrative that details his enslavement and the daring
escape that ultimately led to his freedom. It's a captivating tale
and testament to the perseverance and strength of the human spirit.
In this narrative, William W. Brown presents the true story of his
birth and life as an enslaved African American. He provides a
truthful look at his origins, noting the unfortunate dynamic
between his Black mother and white father. Brown goes into great
detail explaining the rules and regulations of plantation life. He
also discusses working on a steamboat, which eventually leads to
his escape. Narrative of William W. Brown is a sobering story that
illuminates the horrors of an inhumane institution. It's personal
and vital record that gives insight into the darkest time in
American history. With an eye-catching new cover, and
professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Narrative of
William W. Brown is both modern and readable.
Born into slavery, Clotel is a white-passing woman who conceals her
identity and uses a disguise to infiltrate a plantation to rescue
her loved ones. It's a story of survival that's deeply rooted in
the cruelest part of American history. Clotel and Althesa are the
illegitimate daughters of Thomas Jefferson and a slave woman named
Currer. Despite their father's elite status, the girls are sold
into slavery but attempt to use their fair complexions to their
advantage. Clotel takes it a step further, dressing as a white man
to emancipate her daughter who was sold against her will. Clotel;
or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the
United States is an American tragedy that explores generational
trauma. William Wells Brown, who's considered the first African
American novelist, uses his personal experience to illustrate the
horrors of bondage. It's a heartbreaking tale that tests the
undeniable power of the human spirit. With an eye-catching new
cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of
Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in
the United States is both modern and readable.
Born into slavery, Clotel is a white-passing woman who conceals her
identity and uses a disguise to infiltrate a plantation to rescue
her loved ones. It's a story of survival that's deeply rooted in
the cruelest part of American history. Clotel and Althesa are the
illegitimate daughters of Thomas Jefferson and a slave woman named
Currer. Despite their father's elite status, the girls are sold
into slavery but attempt to use their fair complexions to their
advantage. Clotel takes it a step further, dressing as a white man
to emancipate her daughter who was sold against her will. Clotel;
or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the
United States is an American tragedy that explores generational
trauma. William Wells Brown, who's considered the first African
American novelist, uses his personal experience to illustrate the
horrors of bondage. It's a heartbreaking tale that tests the
undeniable power of the human spirit. With an eye-catching new
cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of
Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in
the United States is both modern and readable.
In 1863, as the Civil War raged, the escaped slave, abolitionist,
and novelist William Wells Brown identified two groups most harmful
to his race. "The first and most relentless," he explained, "are
those who have done them the greatest injury, by being instrumental
in their enslavement and consequent degradation. They delight to
descant upon the 'natural inferiority' of the blacks, and claim
that we were destined only for a servile condition, entitled
neither to liberty nor the legitimate pursuit of happiness." "The
second class," Brown concluded, "are those who are ignorant of the
characteristics of the race, and are the mere echoes of the first."
Four years later, Brown wrote the first military history of African
Americans, The Negro in the American Rebellion. This text assailed
those whose hatred and ignorance inclined them to keep blacks
oppressed after Appomattox. This critical edition of The Negro in
the American Rebellion, one of Brown's least-analyzed texts, is the
first to appear in more than three decades. In his introduction,
historian John David Smith identifies the text's Anglo-American
abolitionist roots, sets it in the context of Brown's other
writings, appraises it as military history, analyzes its
interpretation of black masculinity and honor, and focuses closely
on Brown's assessment of contemporary racial tensions. Largely
ignored by scholars, The Negro in the American Rebellion, Smith
argues, is a powerful transitional text, one that confronted
squarely the neo-slavery of the Reconstruction era. "Whites," Brown
wrote, "appear determined to reduce the blacks to a state of
serfdom if they cannot have them as slaves." His important text was
a call to arms in the ongoing race struggle. Smith's analysis,
framed within recent scholarship on slavery, emancipation, and
African American participation in the U.S. army, is long overdue.
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